The Newman Lab investigates the mechanics and neural control of intermittent mechanical contact, an activity inherent to legged locomotion and tool manipulation in both humans and robots.
Research Aim 1: Understanding human interaction with objects that have complex dynamics
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Understanding Human Manipulation in a Complex Manufacturing Test in an Effort to Improve Human-Robot Collaboration
Wire-harness installation is currently a complex manual manipulation task in the manufacturing process of large electrical systems. Simply put, wire…
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Dynamic primitives in human-object physical interaction
Humans are capable of skillfully manipulating complex objects with their own internal dynamics, such as moving a sloshing cup of…
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Human manipulation on complex objects – Whipping
Our research goal is to explicate the whipping action in the words of dynamic primitives – submovement, oscillation and impedance. The reason…
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Human Inspired Control Strategies for Robots Performing Constrained Motion Tasks
While robot performance has seen huge improvements over the past several decades, humans still vastly outperform them at tasks that…
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Circularly Constrained Motion
Motor neuroscience research is primarily composed of studies investigating unconstrained motion. Yet, interaction with constraints are essential aspects of everyday…
Research Aim 2: Understanding the fundamentals of human locomotion
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Human Balance Control in Challenging Environment with/without Physical Assistance
Humans exhibit remarkable locomotion capabilities that out-perform modern robots, while considering the complexity of the musculo-skeletal system and its ‘slow’…
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Characterization of the Dynamics of the Human Ankle
In human locomotion, we continuously modulate joint mechanical impedance of the lower limb (hip, knee, and ankle) either voluntarily or…
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Studying Human Gait Entrainment to Assistive Robotic Input
While rehabilitation of upper-limb motor function with human-interactive robots has been met with success, robot-aided locomotor rehabilitation has proven challenging. Conventional therapeutic…
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Testing and benchmarking decomposition approaches of motor signals during dynamic movements for intent reconstruction
Many lower extremity exoskeletons assist in locomotion, but for this to be possible, the exoskeleton must work in synchrony with…
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Frequency-Dependent Force Direction Elucidates Neural Control of Balance
Balance is an unstable task that requires control of translational and rotational motions. Humans use foot-ground interaction force, characterized by…
Research Aim 3: Advancing human rehabilitation with robotic therapy
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State-of-the-art Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Robot.
This project strives to develop an inertia compensator for the InMotion2 planar robot for use in studies with human interaction.…
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Non-Contact Estimation of Limb Impedance
For robotic systems to interact with or learn from the actions of surrounding humans, it is important that they can…